Canadian sex killer speaks of crimes

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A notorious Canadian sex killer, freed from prison after 12
years behind bars for her role in the rape, torture and murder of
two schoolgirls, said she posed no danger to anyone.

Karla Homolka made the comments in an interview with
Radio-Canada, the French language television service of the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, after she was released from a
Montreal-area prison.

"I don't want people to think that I am someone dangerous who
will do something to their children," Homolka said in an interview
conducted in French because she wanted to "restart her life in
French".

Homolka, 35, and her then husband, Paul Bernardo, kidnapped,
sexually assaulted, tortured and killed two teenage girls in the
early 1990s in southern Ontario.

Homolka, who videotaped the assaults, also drugged her
15-year-old sister so Bernardo could rape her in the basement of
her family home after a Christmas dinner. The girl choked on her
own vomit and died.

"I cry a lot," Homolka said on Monday. "I can't bring myself to
forgive myself. I think about what I did and often I think that I
don't deserve to be happy because of what I did."

Seated beside her lawyer, Homolka said she was remorseful and
wished she had stopped the killings. She blamed her role in the
crimes on youth, a lack of self-confidence and a desire to be in a
relationship. "I didn't initiate the crimes. I followed. Yes, I did
what I did but . . . " she said.

It was the first time Canadians heard directly from the woman
who has fascinated and repelled the country for more than a
decade.

"It was a difficult decision to take because I am a very private
person and I don't like to talk about my feelings," she said of her
decision to give an interview.

"I want to keep things to myself but it is not possible.

"I think it's time that I talk."

The crimes horrified Canada. Public anger was further fuelled by
the lenient plea-bargain deal for manslaughter Homolka struck in
return for testifying against Bernardo, an agreement dubbed "a deal
with the devil".

Bernardo is serving a life sentence for murder and is unlikely
to be released.

Homolka plans to live in Quebec where her crimes received less
attention than in English-speaking Canada.